


close your eyes and just believe

by disastaire



Category: Detroit Evolution - Fandom, Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, M/M, i was given inspiration from a friend's shitposting about glee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25211260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disastaire/pseuds/disastaire
Summary: Tina Chen watches too much television from the 2000s and gets a wild idea on how to use an elevator to get Nines and Gavin talking again.
Relationships: Tina Chen (Detroit: Become Human)/Valerie Morales-Chen, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 3
Kudos: 49





	close your eyes and just believe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wardenmages](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wardenmages/gifts).



It has been 72 hours since Nines and Gavin spoke. Tina is absolutely done with it.

Gavin has whined in his manly, all emotions are pain way, and Nines has flitted from anxious to righteous so many times she has whiplash. The general level of grouchiness has increased by at least two. Chris has even noticed and has taken to doing the weird thing with his eyebrows that says 'do you see what I see' and Tina has resisted the urge to scream 'duh' a thousand times.

As is tradition, when Tina gets home from work and dinner is done, she and Valerie curl up on the couch and binge old TV series. For the last few weeks they've been invested in one from the late 2000s. It's absolutely cringe-worthy and has not aged well, but for some reason it's also impossible to turn off. She's so deeply invested in the characters growth, even if it comes with way too over the top shenanigans and musical numbers. Sometime in the later seasons, which she's watching halfheartedly as she plays with Valerie's hair, a feuding ex-couple get locked in the elevator and challenged to escape it. It's all tied together with the campy, now traditional horror-movie style trappings. Valerie snuggles into her and Tina's distracted until later on in bed, when she's falling asleep. The perfect plan comes to mind in the hazy, uninhibited space her brain is in as she slowly drifts to sleep, curled against her wonderful partner and plotting how to get her friends to stop fighting.

The DPD has been in an area of the city where blackouts are becoming more common with the onslaught of summer. Thunderstorms, floods, freak accidents - if it blows out the power, DPD is impacted. Tina strongly believes it's a horrible design flaw that needs to be corrected, especially considering they could invest in generators. But for her plan, it's the perfect excuse.

The day starts normally. The cold front that is Nines and Gavin only comes in when Nines, who arrived on time, has to interact with Gavin, who arrived late and with coffee. It's a station-bound day for them. They've got a suspect in holding to interrogate and a ton of paperwork to get through. Tina knows because she cornered Chris in the break room and asked about it. Since making detective, he's been partnered with her or with Gavin and Nines. Tina hopes when she applies for promotion in the next month that she'll get Chris as a partner. He notices a lot, even if he doesn't always see the obvious. He ran her through their day and even offered a couple tips - she's got to remember to buy him cupcakes for this. 

Tina checks her watch. She's got five minutes until showtime. It's late afternoon and it's fairly cleared out, there's already been power surges, and Nines and Gavin are about to head downstairs into interrogation. Gavin's lazy, and Nines will be professional and remain at his side despite wanting to take the stairs because they're quicker. Tina has a moment where she forces herself to stop thinking about this. Is she going too far? Is it weird she's this observant? She quickly answers the second question. Her observation skills are going to be what gets her promoted. There's no shame in being just that amazing.

Gavin and Nines disappear into the elevator. She drops any pretense of being casual and sprints toward the maintenance room to kill the power to the elevator. Her path is blocked, though, and she comes to a halt in a stuttered, very not casual way. The door's blocked by a cleaning cart, and the maintenance worker is headphones on and jamming away as they start mopping the floor. Tina shuffles to make herself look more presentable, biting back a groan, and goes up to the cleaner. She's about to start convincing them to move when the lights go out.

\---

The minute the lights go out, Gavin regrets his choice to use the elevator.

But the minute Nines opens his mouth to say, 'I told you so', he doubles down on it.

"I don't wanna hear it, Nines."

"I simply feel the need to point out I did say it was unnecessary to use, considering the distance and the electrical outages lately."

Gavin presses a couple buttons rapidly. Nothing's lighting up. The whir from the elevator is gone, leaving only the odd creaking in the background that echoes against the other metal around them. He shudders, not wanting to think about how far the drop is. The DPD's a few stories high, but they were on the first floor, heading to the basement. Not too far a drop, right?

After another series of button pushing, Nines chimes in again, "It's a futile effort. Reports are coming in that this outage is impacting the majority of the city. We're not going to move anytime soon."

"So how long until we suffocate then?" Gavin slumps against the wall. He looks supremely uncomfortable, but whether that's because he's around Nines or trapped in an elevator, who's to say.

Nines pauses, LED whirring yellow as he processes incoming reports. Elevators are not ideal locations for reception, even for androids, but their signal and connective abilities still far surpass those of cellphones and other communication devices. There's multiple reports of accidents, dispatches of emergency crews, and mobilization of police trained as EMTs to get to scenes, as well as general dispatches for handling accidents. Interestingly, aside from those reports, he has a ping from Tina. It just sent, but he can tell it was set to a timer, as the message holds the draft and the release times in its encryption.

"Nines - tell Gavin to look in the evidence box. And don't worry, you won't be in there long. - T"

Nines stands straighter, tension running up his back. "Gavin, Tina says to check the evidence box. And to not worry, we won't be in here long."

"How would she know how long we'll be in here?" Gavin starts pawing open the evidence box. Everything's labelled and up to standards, but atop the evidence in another labelled, clear bag is a thermos, snacks, and a folded up note. Gavin puts the evidence box aside, back to the corner he'd dropped it when the power went out, and starts rummaging through the bag. The notes fall out. Nines picks it up.

It only takes seconds for him to comprehend the situation in its entirety. 

"I believe we've been pranked. Or tricked, perhaps that is the better description of our situation," Nines says. He holds out the note to Gavin. 

Gavin's cracked open the thermos and taken a swig after giving it a sniff. Coffee. Just what he needs to cope with his situation. Nines gives him a look. "Is further caffeination going to assist in keeping calm for the duration of our entrapment?"

"Don't know, don't care," Gavin snarks back. He notices the note then and takes it, drinking down more of the coffee as he scans it. He nearly chokes on it, coughing violently as it goes down the wrong pipe, when he gets to the point of the note. "She fucking cut the power to the elevator? What the hell?"

"I believe she intended to. However, the reports of the current blackouts do include our district, and there are notices from other officers detailing other people trapped in areas within the building."

Gavin scoffs, but it's not the normal, derisive one he uses. It's disbelief. Tina got really fucking lucky.

\---

Tina's not having a good day.

She must have some of the worst luck. It's one thing to strand your friends in an elevator and know you can guarantee their safety and well-being at the end, but it's something entirely different to know they're trapped without possible escape and there's nothing you can do.

She's called into the bullpen for a briefing. They're the only ones stuck in the elevator, but some are trapped in interrogation rooms that are sealed because of key cards. Most free officers are sent to handle those situations, others sent out for other emergencies, leaving just Tina and a skeleton crew to handle the station. Chris claps her on the shoulder before he goes off to use his EMT training and help with rescues.

She's EMT trained too, but someone needs to be on site just in case.

Tina's scanning through the current incoming reports and emergency calls when she gets a ping from a familiar user. She groans, then sits upright and puts on her headset before she answers. It's the android equivalent to a phone call, which she knows Nines can broadcast for Gavin to hear.

"Hey guys," she starts. She's cut off by Gavin swearing and Nines admonishing him to calm down. Tina starts again, "Hey, calm down. The connection's crackly at best with you both stuck there, so focus up."

"This is some fucked up shit, Tina!"

"Well I didn't do it," she says, defensive. She had planned to. But the semantics were in her favor; planning to and actually doing are two very different things. "And I'm trying to figure out where you guys are."

"I would not recommend that," Nines interjects. "We're firmly between levels with no potential for opening the door. Gavin has suggested the emergency hatch, but I do not think it's a wise course, should the power come back on."

Tina pulls up the current reports on estimated return of power. It's all so iffy; transistors are out, but DPD's on the main grid so when anything goes up, it goes up. It's lower priority than the hospitals, but there's also one on the same grid as DPD, as well as a clinic and an in-patient care facility. But if the problem is more than transistors, it could be a few hours.

"Okay, so no rescue. There's just waiting it out. If it makes you feel any better, Fowler's harassing the city council for generator funds."

Gavin scoffs. It comes through as a snort then static. 

"I know it's not ideal. But at least there's coffee and snacks?" Tina has a second where she wonders if she should continue with her original plan. It takes only one moment of their cold arguing for her to decide that yes, her plan is still in motion. "And plenty of time for you two to figure out your issues. Have fun!"

\---

"She hung up on us," Nines says after a moment, slightly bewildered. Gavin slumps to the elevator floor and pulls off his jacket, balling it up as a makeshift pillow. "Does she really believe a forced encounter would help us resolve our issues?"

"It's Tina. She lives and dies by the gimmicks of old sitcoms and series," Gavin mumbles, an arm tossed over his facing muffling his words. "Wake me up when the power's on."

There's faint emergency lighting in the elevator, like the light is being submerged in murky water. Nines' LED is the brightest light in the elevator. Gavin keeps peeking through his arm to look before shifting to get comfortable. Nines stands with his hands folded, then thinks better of it. He sits down cross-legged, staring at Gavin for a few moments.

Gavin notices the next time he peeks through, and it's accompanied by a muffled curse. "Why are you staring at me?"

"I thought, perhaps, we could talk."

"Now? Really?" Gavin scoffs. He abandons the pretense of sleep and shifts to lean against the wall, legs extended. 

"We can pretend we're on a stakeout."

There's a long pause, the silence filling the confined space. Gavin's staring at Nines, a muscle in his jaw twitching. "Fine. What's on your mind, tin can?"

"While I admit that much of my irritation comes from the silent treatment you've favored the last few days, I do not understand what caused it to occur. At first I wanted to give you space, but then I just… got annoyed," Nines almost smiles at the admission. It's so very deviant, very human, to get annoyed and use that as a reason to maintain a silence that caused the annoyance to start with. Emotional behavior is filled with contradictions.

Nines is working through his thoughts, and Gavin seems to be as well. The quiet that falls is almost companionable, the empty space waiting for more words rather than afraid to break because of them.

Gavin grows restless. He starts fidgeting to get comfortable, trying to find that single sweet spot he used to be in. Nothing feels like it, and when he gives up on that, he starts tapping. It's muted and quiet against his thigh. "Do I have to, Nines?"

That's a first, Nines notes. "Gavin, after your deathbed confession to me, nothing could be as equally embarrassing and sweet."

Quiet again. Then, "You didn't take my offer."

"Your offer?"

Gavin gives Nines a hard, meaningful look. Nines just blinks in response, eyebrows raising, displaying his confusion. 

There's a long, drawn-out sign of resignation from the only human occupant of the elevator. "I asked you to move in with me, and you didn't respond." 

"Gavin -"

"No, Nines, you don't gotta explain it. I didn't want to make you feel shitty because I figured it was the nice way of letting me down and I just needed time to process it. Which is difficult because we spend pretty much all our time together." Gavin looks so nervous and he's practically rambling. He's resolutely not looking at Nines though; he looks anywhere else, even close his eyes after a moment, head resting against the elevator wall. 

Nines shifts and moves across the very limited space to sit beside Gavin. Gavin can feel the elevator shift a bit and he winces from his spiking concern about plunging to death. Nines has a soft smile on his face as he reaches for Gavin's hand. 

"I was just marveling at the complexities of emotions. Everything's a contradiction. Especially when you don't understand what people mean by certain things."

Gavin tightens his grip on Nines' hand. He didn't expect it. Last time someone didn't respond to his offer to move in, he got his stuff returned to him in a box with a note, and that was it. He couldn't blame them, but it fucking sucked.

Nines continues, "In this case, I mean that it's hard to understand how 'you should store some thirium and a spare jacket here' is an invitation to move in permanently. It seemed more like a kind gesture, considering how often I stay over."

Gavin raps his knuckles against the metal siding of the wall. "Oh, yeah, just keep kicking me while I'm down."

Nines gives Gavin's hand a squeeze. "Ask me again, Gavin."

There's an instinctive 'no' that Gavin has to bite back. Nines sounds so sincere and genuine and he's easily won over by the soft smile and kind eyes of his boyfriend. "Nines, will you move in with me?"

\---

Tina's been pacing in front of the elevators down on the sublevel for ten minutes. It's been nearly two hours total of blackout. Everyone else was rescued or relieved with small, portable generators, but the elevators had to wait until the full grid kicked back on, then the system to go online and do it's full reboot.

The machine kicks into whirring gear and she stops pacing, opting to stand a few feet back and wait. The door opens within seconds, and the first person through it is Gavin, who looks… happy? He looks happy. The frigid waves they've been putting off seem to have vanished. Tina sighs, cracking a wide smile. 

"I'm glad you're all right. I may have harassed some technicians to get us power sooner," she admits. 

Gavin gives her a look, walking up in front of her. He claps a hand on her shoulder then starts walking by, heading to take the stairs up. Nines follows with the evidence box, a small grin on his face. Tina's stomach sinks. Gavin is a master of pranks and his revenge is always a concern.

"So are you two good? Are we good?" she calls.

Gavin stops at the stairs, giving Nines a look, who shrugs. Then Gavin addresses her. "I guess we will be. You're gonna be carrying most of the furniture upstairs anyway."

The two head upstairs, the sound of conversation and laughter following. Tina waits until she's alone to pump her fist into the air and let out a wild breath of relief. She can handle moving boxes. That's easy compared to the annual physical. But… why did he mention boxes and furniture?

Tina's charging at the stairs to catch up after them. "Wait, this whole thing was about moving in together? Seriously?"


End file.
